$5 Savings Plan...

[kadesha]

I saw this on Pinterest and am going to try it. Has anyone here tried it and had luck? I just don't know if I can shove every five dollar bill I get in a jar or box! But it's a good idea!

http://www.mommysavers.com/c/t/197913/the-5-savings-plan-have-you-tried-it

 

[2girls4me]

I just posted this on the "found money" thread. I'm going to try it for a month. I want tot see how much I can get. I started on Friday, and have $15 dollars saved as of today.

 

[Four*Peas]

I think it sounds like a great idea and easy and easy enough...but I never have $5s! do it for a month and see what happens!

 

[goofyredraider]

I used to do the $1 method a while back. I just started doing it again this month...and I've saved a TON already. I also save ALL coin change.

 

[ksloane]

I save all change, but never thought to do $1's or $5's. I am going to a cash budget next payday and I might try it. Right now I know I wouldn't save much at all as I pretty much use my debit card to pay for everything.

 

[vegasnative]

I also saw this on Pinterest today. My mom has been doing this for about 2 years now. She saves every $5 she gets, but she saves it up for my kids bdays & holidays, then sends it to them.
I think I'm going to try it starting in February. We have been on a strict cash only plan for awhile now, so $5s will be coming my way, I'm curious to see how it goes. Maybe we could use this thread to check in, and keep us motivated for those that want to try it?

 

[kadesha]

Sounds good. I'd like to see how many people have luck with it. The only thing I'm worried about is gas. I tend to use $5 bills when I get gas for some reason, I guess it doesn't sting as bad as using $20's. lol!

 

[Marionnette]

I think that anything that helps you to save is a good thing. I don't think it will work for me. I have a regular savings plan in place with my bank.

I have $25/week automatically taken out of my checking for each of the kids while they are in college. I call it their "Stupid Fund". If they do something stupid (parking tickets, fines, or worse), then the money to pay for it comes out of their Stupid Fund. If they don't do anything stupid during their 4 years in college, they will have over $5,000 to use as a means to start their adult life.

I don't get a lot of $5 bills since I only use a little cash during the week. But I do save my change, mostly because I don't like the added weight in my wallet.

 

[scrapquitler]

We do this with coins and $1s. I don't use that much cash, so getting a $5 is somewhat rare for me. The ones and coins really add up fast.

 

[DawnM]

ING works much better for me. I don't have to SEE it first. If it is in a jar I will grab it for those times I go yard sale-ing or the times I just need a few dollars for something.

I don't want large jars of money sitting around the house.

Dawn

 

[momto2inKC]

We do this but not with $5's, with $1's and change. Sometimes we'll throw a bigger bill in the jar.

 

[AnninIowa]

I empty my wallet of change and $1 bills everytime I come home from spending money. I would love to do 5's, but not sure I can part with those!

 

[ilovemk76]

This is not a real savings plan if you are robbing Peter to pay for Paul.

You take $100 cash out of the bank to buy groceries for the week, per your budget. You stop at the grocery store for a few items and pay cash. In your change you find a $5, so you put in into a jar. You do this three more times before the week is out. At the end of the week you have $20 in the jar but find out you are out of money for groceries and do not have enough food to last until the next $100 draw.

Off to the bank you go and you take out just $20 to buy milk, bread, eggs, fruit and veggies. This takes all the $20.

At the end of the week you spent $100 on groceries and put $20 in your jar.

You took out $120 from the bank.

You did not save any money but just moved money from the bank to a jar. This is funny money accounting. It might make you feel better thinking you have extra money to spend but you do not. You are now overspending because of that "found" money.

The best way to save it by a budget. Each pay period you put $X into long-term savings. $Y into short-term savings. $Z into the vacation/movie/fun money savings.

 

[budafam]

This is not a real savings plan if you are robbing Peter to pay for Paul.

You take $100 cash out of the bank to buy groceries for the week, per your budget. You stop at the grocery store for a few items and pay cash. In your change you find a $5, so you put in into a jar. You do this three more times before the week is out. At the end of the week you have $20 in the jar but find out you are out of money for groceries and do not have enough food to last until the next $100 draw.

Off to the bank you go and you take out just $20 to buy milk, bread, eggs, fruit and veggies. This takes all the $20.

At the end of the week you spent $100 on groceries and put $20 in your jar.

You took out $120 from the bank.

You did not save any money but just moved money from the bank to a jar. This is funny money accounting. It might make you feel better thinking you have extra money to spend but you do not. You are now overspending because of that "found" money.

The best way to save it by a budget. Each pay period you put $X into long-term savings. $Y into short-term savings. $Z into the vacation/movie/fun money savings.

I agree with the above. It doesn't sound like the greatest savings plan... if you want to save, take a certain amount out each week... this $5 thing could end up hurting you in the end if you don't have enough at the end of the week. Sometimes my bank pays me out in $5 bills... so all of my grocery budget would go in a savings envelope

 

[brennicksmom]

under what subject was it on Pinterest?

 

[momto2inKC]

under what subject was it on Pinterest?

In the search box on Pinterest just put $5 saving plan and it'll come up

 

[2girls4me]

I started on the 27th and I have 25$ now. Im hoping to keep it up for the rest of the month. Whatever I end up with, will get thrown into the savings acct for birthday party/Disney.

 

[Laurawill]

Good idea in theory, I'm just too scared to keep any cash around the house. We were robbed a couple years back and they took all our change jars... It was probably $50... So after that we stopped keeping a change jar at home, but my husband had one at work. And last Christmas Eve their office was robbed, and guess what, they took the change jar again!

I was pretty frustrated about the theives taking my change I can only imagine how outraged I would be if they got some cash!

So now we are credit card people. We pay the balances off every month, get great rewards and if/when the cc gets stolen (because they of course got one when our house was robbed) it was quite easy to get the charges reversed.

 

[tikilyn]

I've done the $1 jar before but the kids seem to always need money for school and I would raid the jar! Having the cash at the house doesn't work for me.

I have become a debt card abuser (as I like to call me). What I do is when I write what I've spent in my register, in the fee column I'll add a 1.00 (like an atm fee). So if I spent 10.00 at walmart, I'll write down that amount plus the 1.00 in the fee column and subtract 11.00 from the total. Leaving the 1.00 in the bank. At the end of each month I total the fee column and take that out of the back account and put it in my savings.

 

[nichanda]

I started doing a different plan the beginning of this year. I've started with the cash system. I use cash for all purchases. I still pay my bills through my bank (such as phone bill, power bill, etc).

However, I've budgeted myself a certain amount of grocery money, gas money, misc. money, etc. Each goes into an envelope marked as such. I make sure to be generous but realistic to each of these envelopes, as I don't want to have to take from one envelope to give to the other. At the end of the month, anything that is left goes in a jar, and I reload each envelope with what I've budgeted for the month.

This seems to keep me frugal. I'm more likely to use the coupons I have or not buy something I really don't need, as at the end of the month it will mean more money in my jar.

I'm undecided what I will use the jar money for. Might be a new fridge. Ours is ugly, and I've had my eye on those beautiful stainless french door fridges for quite awhile.